Choice And Accountability Claims By Diane Ravitch

Santos 1 TO: Franklin McDuffy, California State Senator FROM: Onassis Santos, Education Policy Researcher at Senator McDuffy’s Office DATE: October 27, 2014 SUBJECT: Choice and Accountability claims by Diane Ravitch The purpose of this memo is to review and analyze the claims made by Diane Ravitch in her book, The Life and Death of the Great American School System, and to justly state if the authors claims are well-researched and based on facts or if her arguments and claims are biased and opinionated. More specifically, this memo will acknowledge the two central ideas of contemporary education reform today: choice and accountability. Advocates of school choice believe that it provides families with alternative options to choose their children’s education that works best for them while encouraging competition to better schools. However, opponents of school choice believe that it will erode the public school system until it is no more. Some argue that accountability is â€Å"the great cure† that will fix schools by testing and placing teachers accountable, this will encourage more effort and in turn promote student achievement. Others believe that too much accountability is the reas on why our schools are failing. Ravitch seems to see choice and accountability as the main obstacles standing in the way of a thriving American school system. After much careful research, I have come to two conclusions. First, choice is not remedy to make education better; all that choice does isShow MoreRelatedEssay on Standardized Testing a Failure in Education1335 Words   |  6 PagesAmerican Public School system. Politicians claim that Accountability is needed. Dylan Wiliam wrote that â€Å"The logic of accountability is deceptively simple†(110) He goes on to say that â€Å"students attending higher quality schools will (by definition) have higher achievement than those attending lower quality schools, so that the differences in quality of schools will result in systematic differences in achievement between schools†(110). Yes indeed accountability is needed. It is needed for those who payRead MoreEducation Policy : Is It, Damned Lies, And Education2759 Words   |  12 Pagespurpose of this essay is to analyze what I have found in my research on how the relationship between school and society, and how it has changed in the United States across the Historical Eras. In this analysis, I relate the changing of reforms to Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, along with some other resources used in the Education Policy class. Education can be traced back as far as the time of the pilgrims in America. 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